Build a ‘family-society,’ not a ‘fortress-society,’ Pope says in Angelus address

In his October 4 Sunday Angelus address, Pope Francis said that participants in the Synod of Bishops will “keep our eyes fixed on Jesus” in order to “find, on the basis of his teaching of truth and mercy, the most appropriate ways for adequate commitment of the Church with families and for families, so that the Creator’s original plan for man and woman be implemented and may operate in today’s world, in all its beauty and its strength.”

Recalling that spouses “participate in the creative power of God” and share in God’s love through the Holy Spirit, Pope Francis prayed “that all parents and educators in the world, as well as all of society, are made instruments of that acceptance and love with which Jesus embraces the little ones.”

“He looks into their hearts with tenderness and solicitude of a father and a mother at the same time,” the Pope continued. “I think of so many children that are hungry, abandoned, exploited, forced into the war, refused. It is painful to see images of children that are unhappy, looking lost, fleeing from poverty and conflicts.”

The Pope added:

They are knocking on our doors and our hearts begging for help. The Lord helps us not to be a ‘fortress-society,’ but a ‘family-society,’ which welcomes, with proper rules, but welcomes, always welcomes, with love!
Following the Angelus, the Pope prayed for landslide victims in Guatemala and flood victims in France.